FAYETTEVILLE — Deputies found the body of a missing Prairie Grove woman in her car Wednesday.
Dana May-Mogg, 51, had been missing since May 20.
Capt. Dallas McClellan of the Washington County Sheriff's Office said May-Mogg’s body was found in the front seat of her 2007 Toyota Corolla, about 800 feet off Buckhorn Camp Road.
McClellan said the body, along with other evidence collected from her car, was sent to the Arkansas State Crime Lab to determine the cause of death and further confirm her identity.
At A Glance
As of Dec. 31, the National Crime Information Center contained 87,217 active missing person records. During 2012, 661,593 missing person records were entered into the database and 659,514 were cleared or canceled.
Source: FBI
Detectives wouldn’t disclose what evidence they found in the car. McClellan said they wouldn't deem the evidence suspicious.
“We don’t believe there was any foul play in her disappearance at this time,” he said. “Until we get a cause of death, we’re open to anything.”
McClellan said it appeared May-Mogg intentionally drove her car to a hidden area near her home.
“What you and I would drive by and think of as woods, you drive off into it with an ATV, you find out it’s a road,” he said. “That’s what we found today. We found what I would call similar to a rabbit trail.”
Buckhorn Camp Road is 10 to 12 miles south of Prairie Grove.
McClellan said the car wasn’t wrecked and investigators didn’t notice any obvious injuries to May-Mogg’s body.
“This wasn’t an accident,” he said. “She intentionally drove to that area.”
May-Mogg was last seen on May 20, between 4 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., when she left her job at the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks, according to a news release.
Her husband, John May, 71, reported her missing May 21.
Investigators entered her as a missing person in the National Crime Information Center database, McClellan said.
They tried to find May-Mogg through aerial searches and vehicle searches. They also analyzed telephone, credit card and bank records.
McClellan said detectives initially reviewed call records and text messages. The last time she used her phone was May 20, he said. The phone died two or three days later.
They “pinged” her phone and detectives searched the Brentwood community south of West Fork. They didn’t find any evidence during those searches.
Detectives searched another area near Mogg’s property Wednesday based on a recent analysis of cellphone information, McClellan said.
“It takes some time to get back other data about coordinates and (cell phone) towers that were hit,” he said. “When we were able to get that information, we were able to lay it out on a map and noticed that we had a particular area, which was around her residence, that this was the last time the phone hit a tower.”
McClellan said May-Mogg attempted suicide 10 years ago.
Neither she, nor her husband, have a criminal record at the Washington County Sheriff’s Office.
Wanda Shull, spokeswoman for the Veterans Healthcare System of the Ozarks, said May-Mogg was hired May 29, 2009, and was a registered nurse in the emergency room.
Shull said she couldn’t release any other information about her employment with the hospital.
Sally Williams, administrator for a Facebook page called, “Help Bring Dana Home,” said she was saddened to learn of May-Mogg’s death.
“I wish I could say it was a total shock, but it’s been long enough that I feared it would be something like this,” Williams said.
Williams described May-Mogg as reserved and quiet. “She had a laugh that lit up the room,” she said.
Williams said May-Mogg previously lived in Stilwell, Okla., and commuted to Fayetteville. The two worked together at Washington Regional Medical Center.
She said May-Mogg had two adult children and married John May in January.
“Dana worked at Washington Regional for 20 some odd years,” she said. “She was dedicated to her job. There were times when the weather would be so bad that some employees would call in because they couldn’t make it to work. Dana would drive clear over from Stilwell, Okla. She was very reliable.”
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Tony Hernandez contributed to this report.